1896, Muckleshoot Reservation, WA: An enjoyable outing
Shortly into the post-frontier era, there’s still an excellent use for Chinuk Wawa in the south Puget Sound area.
Image credit: Costello, “The Siwash”, page 110
Native people of the Muckleshoot Tribe speak it when an old “pioneer” acquaintance shows up to visit:
AN ENJOYABLE OUTING.
County Treasurer Finds a Bee-Tree — A
Day With Muckelshoot Tillicums.After a week’s outing near Des Moines
and along the Muckelshoot [Muckleshoot] and Newau-
kom [Newaukum], County Treasurer J. W. Maple is
back again at his desk greatly invigorated.
During his absence he spent the entire
time out of doors, and feasted on the best
in the land. The party, which Included C.
W. Prouty, Samuel Snyder, Mr. Maple and
his sons Cliff and Telford, caught a great
many trout, and topped off the outing by
the discovery of a bee tree, a monster fir,
from which the bees came in a swarm as
large as a man’s arm, in the woods back
of Des Moines. The bees were not mo-
lested, but it is probable they will be
obliged to yield up their store of honey be-
fore next fall.The party passed through the Muckel-
shoot reservation, where there are 162 In-
dians, many of them old-time friends of
Mr. Maple. They crowded about the
wagon and in the musical Chinook ex-
changed courtesies with the pioneer tilli-
cum, giving him a hearty and royal wel-
come. Mr. Maple was much pleased with
what he saw of the Indians. “There were
observable on all sides,” said he, “life, vigi-
lance, energy and earnestness. Forty of
the Indians were at work with plows and
scrapers on a new road, and they haveabout transformed what was once an un-
sightly mudhole into an attractive high-
way. There was an air of prosperity ob-
servable, and almost the first thing to
catch my eye was a number of new barns.
The agent at the reservation is not afraid
of work. When I saw him he had his coat
off,, and was very busy, and I must say he
deserves credit for what he has accom-
plished .*
— from the Seattle (WA) Post-Intelligencer of July 10, 1896, page 5, column 1 (“Muckelshoot Tillicums”)
(here’s the link to the article:
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045604/1896-07-10/ed-1/seq-5/)
